Smackdown Discussion Thread

[CavemanLynn]

I do like how, since Brookside started at the Performance Centre, these old WoS spots like the rebound clothesline start turning up. That's straight out of the Led Kellett playbook, and Nigel McGuiness used it a lot. It really suits Ambrose's unpredictable persona, as if he could come back swinging at any point. I love Ambrose for all the reasons so many say they hate him - he's scrappy, OTT, he doesn't do anything really flash, but instead everything he does is loaded with personality. He's not a collection of taunt poses like Reigns and not a daredevil like Rollins, but I believe Ambrose is having a fucking fight when he's in the ring. The Roddy Piper comparisons that were made when he first started coming up were spot on. Of the Shield, he's the one who I see having the most interesting feuds because he's the most characterful and physically charismatic of the three. The others will be end up feuds that will amount to little more than movesets vs move sets. Ambrose's brawling but cerebral nut bar could have great storylines with just about anyone.

[Arch Stanton]

Ambrose has publicly said that he used the move as a tribute to Nigel, I don't think it's got anything to do with Brookside to be fair.

 

“A couple of weeks ago, John Moxley, he goes by Dean Ambrose now in WWE, sent me a lovely text saying he’d done a move in tribute to me on RAW. He wrote, “let the record show that yours was the original.” It was nice. Made me smile. And am proud of what he’s achieved now too. After he was signed, and I hope he won’t mind me telling this story, but after he was signed he texted me to tell me how, many years earlier, he and I had shared a deep conversation in a strip club in Ohio that had profoundly affected his career. He told me how he was in a really tough place in his life, thinking about quitting wrestling, and after listening to everything I’d gone through to get where I was, he somehow felt inspired and never looked back.”

-Nigel McGuinness

[Mr Butternut Squash]

After a terrible week of WWE I'm glad they ended it strong.

 

Ambrose vs Sheamus was awesome and it was a joy seeing my two favourite wrestlers kick the shit out of each other. Ambrose has really found his groove as the scrappy underdog and his selling is phenomenal. Reigns vs Henry was decent and it was cool to see Henry revert back to his trash talking wig splitting self for a few minutes. Also cool to see another dimension to Reigns with his babyface ace melodramatic selling. I like Rollins quite a bit -cool look, great in tags - but he's not compelling at all when he's working from underneath. Some of his Diva/Indy/Tanahashi offence annoys me as well.

 

Good show this week with a couple of fresh matches.

[iamtheman]

Batista wins this week though just for this

 

[The Dart]

The happenings from London (also contains Main Event spoilers for those about to watch it):

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

El Torito beat Jinder Mahal

Damien Sandow beat R-Truth

Naomi beat Aksana

Adrian Neville beat Sami Zayn

 

Smackdown:

 

Batista beat Dolph Ziggler No DQ match

Naomi & Cameron beat Nikki Bella & Eva Marie

Bo Dallas beat Sin Cara

Sheamus beat Alberto del Rio by DQ

The Usos beat Erick Rowan & Luke Harper by DQ

 

John Cena beat Bray Wyatt

 

Main Event Cesaro vs. Mark Henry turned into an arm wrestling match instead, which didn't happen either. Probably the worst episode of Main Event ever. Smackdown also had an Adam Rose/Vickie Guerrero segment, and Hulk Hogan & Jimmy Hart hyping the Network.

 

[close spoiler]

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[extacy of farts]

**Spoilers in link**

 

Smackdown - o2 Arena

 

Somehow there's a version of last nights Smackdown recording on Youtube already! Looks like a live feed without any added crowd noise or anything!

[Dai]

Yeah, Ive watched the first hour or so. Reminds me of those 'off the air' youtube vids that used to be put out. Quite interesting to hear them redo lines in the breaks. Stuff like Cole having to redo a line about Fandango and Layla, because they didnt want him to use the phrase 'making out'. Cole said "I had 500lbs of man on top of me" during the Batista match, which he brought up during the break as well, which was funny. Chimmell messing up Eva Maries name as well, which I assume will be edited from the show, along with the commentators ripping into him.

 

Not much to mention about the show, other than the debut of Bo Dallas went well, and Hogan's Network shill promo was a huge mis-use. Surely they could chuck Hogan into something a bit more substantial than what he does now.

[King Pitcos]

Edit: Nevermind. I'd avoided the other posts for spoilers as I've not finished watching it yet, but just spotted the last post has people discussing it.

[MVP RULZ]

Hogan really seemed wasted on the show, I'm sure the live crowd got a kick out of seeing him live but it really was a poitless segmet that seemed dis-jointed and Hogan was just going through the motions.

 

To top it off he was selling the WWE network shows to a crowd who don't have access to the product (not officially anyway).

 

I enjoyed Batista and Ziggler, though the result was never in question it was a fun match

[King Pitcos]

Hogan's Network shill promo was a huge mis-use. Surely they could chuck Hogan into something a bit more substantial than what he does now.

I thought that promo was awful. I don't know if they don't trust Hogan for much of a back-and-forth promo and they don't want to risk him embarrassing himself, and they obviously want to shy away from any brawling (and thus presumably anything that seems like it needs a brawl pay-off), but you'd think he could've been scripted to best Vickie in a promo or something. Maybe Hogan could've had a few words with her and then introduced Adam Rose.

[LaGoosh]

Good show this week. Three really enjoyable matches in Reigns/Barrett, Shaemus/Cesaro and Ambrose/Wyatt.

 

Ambrose/Wyatt is definitely worth going out of your way to see. Really great action with two strong engaging characters. These two have amazing chemistry and Ambrose is revealing himself to be one of the best babyfaces in the WWE.

 

I reckon Bray will win MITB. I hope he does, it would freshen things up big time.

[TheShowOff]

I reckon Bray will win MITB. I hope he does, it would freshen things up big time.

 

I'd like to see him win the gold at the climax of a storyline rather than a multi man ladder match which was put together due to a vacated belt. Bray is climbing the card fast, it's a matter of time, but not yet I feel.

[Merzbow]

Does Bray really need a title? I know there's that old adage that if you're not after the top title then get out the business but the Wyatt character really doesn't seem like someone who'd give a shit about some belt, he has his own twisted goals and has a totally different mindset to anyone else. Most the time he doesn't even care that he loses matches aslong as it keeps his agenda going.

[LaGoosh]

I wouldn't say he's climbing the card. He's lost to Cena and doesn't really have anything else lined up. Him winning the title opens up all kind of possibilities. Also, if Harper/Rowan win the tag belts off the Usos I think it'll really shake things up.

[TheShowOff]

I wouldn't say he's climbing the card. He's lost to Cena and doesn't really have anything else lined up.

 

But he is in the mix with Cena and is credible in the role. Wins / Losses aren't always the answer. If that was the case, why would a loser get the World title? We'll just have to see where he goes from here, surely they have something in mind which will be good considering his past six months.